Following a very lively and rich conversation about arriving at a definition of spirituality by reference to the arts, the participants expressed a wish to continue this group discussion, therefore we are adding a last minute event in our calendar for June.  

If you wish to refresh your memory or catch up on our last discussion, please click on the below link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bE1swWauog&t=1s

As a quick reminder, these are some of the questions discussed:

• What is 'genuine' or authentic spiritual art? How can we discriminate between truly spiritual art and 'consumeristic', magical artefacts? Are spiritual arts the point of arrival itself or are they the means to induce the spiritual state? In other words, are the arts the medium or the outcome of the spiritual state? 
• Is there music that is always spiritual or music that is never spiritual? 
• Do spiritually based methods like channeling,  mediumship, trance,automatic drawing, improvising etc., provide a unique methodology to obtain a different kind of knowledge? How do they compare to the scientific method?
• What is the language of spirituality? Is it images, words, sounds, vibrations? 
• Visionary art as a methodology to arrive at the spiritual: process vs finished product. Does the creative flow state need to be an unconscious state in order to be authentically spiritual?
• The creative process vs awakening/spiritual/mystical experiences: the different quality of attention and intention.  
• The legacy of spiritualism and theosophy on academic discourses of the spiritual in the arts. Should we move beyond the teaching of theosophists? Is contemporary spirituality different from modern spirituality?
• The special nature of music to both heal and transport us to a special way of knowing. Does music stand as a category of its own?  
• The salience of silence and nature for mental and spiritual health. 
• "Today's sense of the spiritual is more ubiquitously generated by the relationship with  nature rather than the divine". Nature and Panpsychism.
• Relationship between the arts and spiritual healing: can the arts be used to reach the spirit of autistic children? 
• Does the right hemisphere plays a special role in altered states of consciousness? For June, music brings about a spiritual state by connecting parts of the brain that are not usually connected: the spiritual state is a whole-brain state, not a right hemisphere state. 
• The evolutionary origins of the arts and religious rituals. Music as a means to create communitas: spirituality as a participatory, interpersonal, unifying human experience rather than a transpersonal, individualising experience. 
• Can the spiritual experience be generalised as a feeling of awe?
• Is creating a spiritual practice or perhaps a spiritual methodology? Making art as a form of presencing or mindful meditation.
• The tragedy of Western culture's treatment of the arts and the rise of mental illnesses.

Here are some participants' attempts to define spirituality:

June: "The reason I have great doubts about saying what spirituality is, is because it is different for various people.  There isn't a thing called it. There is no music which is not spiritual, and there is no music which is always spiritual, because the spiritual experience depends on the relationship between the person experiencing and the nature of the sound that is coming".  

Yoram: "Spirituality is a limitless entity that prefers [sic] to the outcome of thoughts originated in a neural network that combines emotions and imagination, based on cultural knowledge, that creates a fourth dimensional reality... It's a product of a relationship between the networks and the brain..."

Annalisa:"A particular mindset the intent of which is to transcend the ego-state, as defined by a state of disconnectedness. Its ultimate goal is to connect oneself a larger reality than oneself. A spiritual or awakening experience is the realisation or actualisation of said state of mind, whether deliberate or spontaneous".

 (accessed 22/5/23)

Elkins et al (1988): “a way of being and experiencing that comes through awareness of a transcendent dimension and that is characterized by certain identifiable values in regards to self, others, nature, life and whatever one considers to be the ultimate” 

See you there!

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Other references:

Elkins, D. N., Hedstrom, L. J., Hughes, L. L., Leaf, J. A., & Saunders, C. (1988). Toward a Humanistic-Phenomenological Spirituality: Definition, Description, and Measurement. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 28(4), 5–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167888284002

https://www.yo-yoma.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Curtis_Gowan

Join our  Facebook Group called Spirituality and the Arts using this link. 

For more details, see https://spiritualitystudiesnetwork.org/Spirituality-and-the-Arts-SIG

The SIG Chairs: the Rev. Prof. June Boyce-Tillman, Dr Lila Moore, Annalisa Burello.